


Rational behaviour

by epithalamium



Category: Havemercy Series - Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett
Genre: Actually a drabble, Brothers being arseholes, Gen, On to Eklesias, Post Dragon Soul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-07
Updated: 2013-11-07
Packaged: 2017-12-31 18:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1035142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epithalamium/pseuds/epithalamium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rook and Thom get thrown out of an inn. (Initially started out as an idea where angry sex in stables happens, but Rook and Thom are having none of it.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rational behaviour

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Rational behaviour  
> Characters/Pairings: Thom, Rook  
> Rating: PG-13 for language  
> Disclaimer: Havemercy and all related characters is to Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett.  
> Summary: Rook and Thom get thrown out of an inn.  
> Notes/Warnings: Once upon a time, my roommate and I were thrown out of our flatshare and got threatened with the police. I tried to write angry sex fic. But Rook and Thom decided to get angry without the sex.

If forced to tell the truth, Thom would say he’d been expecting this sooner rather than later; what with all the rose-cheeked maidens making moon eyes at Rook in every inn they’ve ever stayed at (and since he was sticking to the truth anyway, Thom would bet the Ke-Han emperor his head that there were some men doing the same thing). Sometimes they were the innkeeper’s daughters. Sometimes their young wives. And sometimes, Rook would be interested enough to make a pass.

Sometimes Thom thought Rook was doing it on purpose, just to see how he’d react.

It didn’t make them the most popular guests of the night, but as long as he could get something to eat, a bed to sleep on, and a bath somewhere in between, Thom didn’t really care. That the mattress was sometimes lumpy and smelled of mould was just a matter of perspective: it was still better than sleeping on the ground and under the stars. He’d slept on worse beds back in Thremedon.

Thom wasn’t a stranger to living it rough, but he much preferred living it rough on a proper bed, thank you very much. Which was why, when they got thrown out of the inn by a crazy ass bitch (Rook’s words, and this time Thom wasn’t inclined to disagree), Thom wasn’t exactly surprised. Given that, he thought it well within his right to give voice to his dissatisfaction.

‘Stop fucking whinging,’ Rook said, unimpressed. ‘D’you think I take some sort of perverse pleasure from sleeping on the fucking ground?’

‘No,’ said Thom, knowing that he’s putting his foot on it but was past caring at the moment. At least if Rook decided to kill him then and there it would provide a permanent solution to all his problems. Not a course he particularly wanted to explore, but his whole body ached and he was hungry and he was just about ready to curl up next to his horse in the stables and sleep for a hundred years. ‘I think you take some sort of perverse pleasure from stringing people along because you can.’

They’ve reached the great, hulking, wet-horse-smelling building where they have left their mounts. Thom tried not to feel anxious, but given Rook’s propensity for hurling him against any horizontal surface, Thom didn’t think standing near walls--or more horridly, _stalls_ \--would help him any. 

‘D’you think,’ said Rook, stopping so abruptly Thom nearly bumped against him, which would have been doubly awkward since Rook had also turned around in a swishing of braids to glare back at Thom, ‘that’s what I’m doing? Stringing people along?’

Thom was gritting his teeth so hard he had to wonder if he’d done permanent damage to his jaws. ‘Yes. That’s what I said.’

‘That how you Cindies at ‘Versity talk to each other?’ Rook laughed, but there was no humour to it. ‘Want to know what _I_ think?’

Thom shrugged. He wasn’t sure if it was wise standing there letting Rook leer down at him, but as the only other option was to go past Rook and into the stables--unless he was ready to run back to the inn screaming bloody murder--he remained where he was.

‘You’d tell me anyway, why should I stop you?’

‘You think your fucking books and pretty theories can explain everything,’ Rook’s voice was softer now, deadlier, ‘but they don’t. I fucking do what I want; I don’t have to have a reason for it.’

People are indeed generally more complex than the usual case study one can find in books; something Marius had reminded Thom more than once. It was rather surprising hearing it from Rook, however. 

‘But you need to have a reason for doing things,’ Thom insisted. ‘That’s the difference between rational and irrational behaviour.’

‘Fuck rational behaviour,’ said Rook. When he laughed, there was real humour to it, albeit a vicious one. ‘You’re here with me. Is that fucking rational behaviour?’

Thom shouldn’t have been pleased that Rook had said ‘you’re here with me’ instead of ‘I’m here with you’, but he was. A rather pressing point about irrational behaviours.

‘We can argue about this all night,’ said Rook, as if that settled the discussion--which it might have done, although Thom would never admit it aloud. ‘Or we can find a place to sleep and finally get some fucking rest. Your call.’

‘Let’s get out of here,’ Thom said. ‘The innkeeper might send someone out here to check on us, I’d rather be far away before that happens.’

‘Most _rational_ thing I’ve heard you say all fucking night,’ Rook said, grinning.

‘Fuck off,’ said Thom.

*


End file.
